As the title says,do you still need a "Green card" for European driving? Not been over for a couple of years and not sure now.

No.

No, within the EU you just need proof of valid European insurance.

You can download a multilingual PDF from the AA's website explaining this in multiple languages, which you can carry in case you get stopped by an asshat trafpol who doesn't know this.

Here,

http://www.theaa.com/car-insurance/pdf/policy-holders-driving-abroad-june-2010.pdf

Overview is here (it pertains to their insurance cover, but the principle is the same).

http://www.theaa.com/services/insuranceandfinance/car_renewals/driving_abroad.html

Just check that your insurance covers you to drive in the country you are going to and take your insurance with you as proof. My insurer emailed an accident statement form, to take with me.

Many thanks everyone. Singletrack knowledge works again.

Check with your insurer – reciprocal arrangements only give you legal minimum cover. some insurers give you the same cover everywhere but I have come across insurance that despite being comp here would only be third party abroad unless you notified them

That was a while ago tho

As TJ says, you need to check with your insurer (as I said) and also (assuming you are covered fully comp. driving abroad) inform them of your dates of travel.. Same goes with your debit and/or credit card providers, you need to tell them when you will/might be using your cards abroad.

Plus, make sure that if you do get pulled up by johnny foreigner copper, be very haughty and arrogant.

This puts them in their place and they let you go. Sometimes frenchie forgets who won both world wars and you have to remind them.

If you are third party only, then a green card isn't strictly needed to provide mimumum cover in most EU countries.

However, as it should be free, then there are some benefits to getting one. Theres absolutely no point to not making a quick call to the insurers and asking for one, so do it.

for example, a green card information pack will probably include an "ASOF" which is a continetal insurance claim form. If you get involved in an accident, the foreign driver will have one, will fill theirs in for you, give you a copy, and before you know it, having signed it, you have inadvertently admitted liability in a legally binding document by the road side which cannot really be disputed. Every year we get people who dont understand the significance of the form being stitched up by foreign drivers as its known UK motorists don't understand.

If you have an ASOF in your car from the green card pack, at least your identical but in English form will help you out with exchanging details and agreeing at the scene what happened.

Also will be good advice in the pack such as if you have an accident in Spain, then without witnesses, or a police report, if a driver refuses tosign an asof and drives off, you cannot make a claim, as to a spanish insurer only an ASOF is "proof" their driver was involved.

Also, if you are tpf&t, a green card will at least cover you for theft and fire. If you are comp cover, then you really really need a Green card, as otherwise your insurance will not cover you for damage to the vehicle regardless of the premiums you pay and the cover you think you have.

Jujuuk68 – Member
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Also, if you are tpf&t, a green card will at least cover you for theft and fire. If you are comp cover, then you really really need a Green card, as otherwise your insurance will not cover you for damage to the vehicle regardless of the premiums you pay and the cover you think you have.

Just to be picky, by default, a Green Card only confirms the legal minimum insurance in the countries you've asked your insurer to list/cover.

If you have fully comp in the UK, in most circumstances, you'll need to ask your insurer to uplift your cover to full comp overseas for the duration/countries of your trip.

A lot of insurers issue Green Cards FOC, fully comp uplift <3 days FOC and then charge by the day covered after that.

As above, get a green card as it's usually free and even if it costs a little is worth it. I spent the best part of an hour sat in the back of a French patrol car while they checked out my insurance because I didn't have a green card on me – oh and sign your insurance documents if there's a place to sign them as it's an offence not to.

It's worth noting that in many European countries it's the car that's covered rather than the driver (a good thing IMO). Take a camera and record any incident making sure the registration plate is visible because as pointed out the Spanish driver may drive off if nobody is hurt – don't hesitate to do the same yourself if nobody is hurt and you were at fault.

Filling out the accident form is no great deal for French drivers and there's no reason for them to stitch you up given that just claiming adversly affects their bonus as responsibility is rarely attributed 100% to one party.

In Germany expect the police or an ambulance to turn up as passing motorists tend to phone them on the mobile. We fell off the tandem without any assistance and had a retungswagen on the scene before I could put the chain back on.

One final thing, take a camera and take pictures.